‘The View’ host Sunny Hostin confronts Van Jones for giving Trump ‘racial cover’
Hostin claimed the Black community no longer trusted Jones
The View created another viral moment when Sunny Hostin confronted Van Jones for giving former President Donald Trump a “racial cover” during his presidency.
Jones, who is a CNN analyst, appeared on Friday’s episode of the ABC chatfest to talk about his new documentary “The Reunited States,” which he co-produced with The View co-host Meghan McCain. The theme of the doc is unity, but he was taken to task by Hostin for his emotional response to President Joe Biden’s win.
After Biden was announced the winner of the November presidential election, Jones cried tears of joy on CNN.
Read More: Van Jones moved to tears after Biden wins election: ‘This is a good day’
“Well, it’s easier to be a parent this morning, it’s easier to be a dad,” he said, before beginning to cry. “It’s easier to tell your kids character matters, it matters.”
Hostin mentioned that Jones’s words had often been contradictory since he had so often praised Trump despite his volatile time in office.
“Now Van, you do spend a lot of time threading the middle and trying to unite people,” Hostin began. “But there are those who accuse you of being a political opportunist—a chameleon, so to speak—who provided racial cover for former, disgraced, twice impeached President Trump.”
Jones nervously smiled as Hostin recounted all the times Jones attempted to give Trump “credit” during his presidency.
“Yet just recently you cried on CNN when Joe Biden was elected the 46th president, and you said it’s easier to be a parent now, character matters now, truth matters,” she continued. “You even mentioned George Floyd and said a lot of people felt they couldn’t breathe. People in the Black community don’t trust you anymore. What is your response?”
Jones pushed back and insisted his words had been taken out of context.
Read More: ‘Red Table Talk’ discusses ‘atonement,’ voting with Van Jones, Ice Cube and Brandon Marshall
“Well, I don’t think that’s true,” Jones proclaimed.
He then gave nuance to what he previously said.
“People may not like everything I’ve said on television and I try to be balanced,” the CNN pundit said. “But look at what I have done. Who among my critics have been able to get people together to help folks at the bottom? When we fight like this about everything and you can’t give anybody even a little bit of credit for anything, who it hurts is not the politicians, it’s not the pundits, it’s regular folks who don’t have anything.”
“I’m never going to apologize for putting the interest of people at the bottom first,” he added defiantly. “People need champions. Whoever is in that White House, you have a responsibility to go in there and advocate and try to get people home out of prison. I’m going to keep doing it, whoever is in that White House.”
Co-host Ana Navarro was in agreement with Hostin.
“Sunny is right,” she said. “You’ve lost a lot of people who trusted you and who saw you as a voice because of the positions you took during Trump.”
Navarro also mentioned that Jones worked with Jared Kushner for criminal reform despite Kushner, who was a senior advisor to Trump, wanting him fired during the 2016 campaign.
Read More: ‘The View’s’ Sunny Hostin reveals in-laws died of coronavirus days apart
Jones insisted he had “no regrets” and is “proud” of his work with the administration.
McCain defended Jones as being able to work across the aisle in a bipartisan manner.
“I want to say you have been such a life raft to me, and given me so much hope to live in the spirit of how my dad taught me to,” she said.
Twitter also weighed in, and most sided with Hostin and giddily cheered her, bringing out the “receipts” of what many perceived to be Jones’ double talk.
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!
TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!
